Mind Linker Chapter 8

Crystal and I gazed out into the dimly lit hallway, we were both on edge, wondering if another crazy Demon like the one ten level above was possibly crawling around in this level. The thought of meeting another one just like that kid gave me the shivers, from this day forth, I now saw kids completely differently. They were monsters, especially the demon ones.

“It’s clear.” She took a slow step forward, her eyes glued towards the front.

We both stepped out, searching from left-to-right, our feet cross over each other as we walked side ways for a bit, then turned right. Crystal lead the way towards the direction that we needed to go, I didn’t know the schedule for Timothy, so there were no point for me to go ahead.

Each step felt heavy, and my head still slightly throbbed. I was surprised that I was still walking okay without dropping on the ground dead.

We passed a couple more doors, passing by glass windows filled with exercising machines. All of the rooms were completely empty, making the whole place eerily quiet.

I couldn’t help but think this was like one of the horror movies, where every turn a possible demon would be popping up to scare us. Those thoughts riddled my brain, making me even more nervous than I should be. My imagination for a moment went completely wild, until I was able to brought back to reality from Crystal’s pat on my shoulder.

I wondered, where all the people had run off too, usually in the gym its packed with people to the point where it was difficult to find a running machine, during certain hours. Half of the machines were still running, telling me that they haven’t been gone for a very long time.

“Over here.” Crystal motioned me over towards the door. She stucked towards the side of the wall, reached over with her hands, and slowly opened the door.

I on the other hand, my hand gripped tightly on the hilt ready to swing if need be. Crystal opened the door completely with her foot, she snapped around with the gun in front of her.

I quickly followed behind her and noticed Jones, Marcus, and Timothy huddled together, looking at the monitor.

“Stick up your hands where I can see them!” Crystal shouted, startling everyone of them.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We’re human!” Jones shouted, he twirled towards Crystal, throwing up his hand in the air. Timothy and Marcus followed his example, they gulped when they saw the rifle pointed directly at them.

“How do I know you’re not an illusion or possibly possessed?” Crystal squinted her eyes, giving them a glare. Her rifle didn’t even budge from her position. “Plus, that’s what all demons say, when they are denying that they are demon.”

I stared at her in disbelief. Did she really have trust issues or is she just being overly cautious? I wasn’t sure, but all I could do was debate on what I should do next. Stop Crystal from shooting, or don’t. The possibility of them being a Demon was extremely low, but I didn’t know much what Demon’s could do except to possessed body and have ridiculous amount of strengths.

“Shit, woman. You know us. You walked in on me singing an old power ranger song, when I was half naked changing!” Jones unconsciously slipped out in between desperation of possibly getting shot.

“Dude, what did you just say?” Timothy slowly turned his head towards him, completely flabbergasted in what he just heard. “Did I hear you correctly? Power Ranger song?”

“Shut up,” Jones hissed. His chocolate brown skin actually started to turn pink. “They were my favorite childhood memories. It was just one of those urges, where you all alone and want to sing for the hell of it.”

Timothy started to snicker. “Why what was your favorite ranger, black?”

“No, it was the red one.”

Timothy thought over what Jones had said. He then shook his head in agreement with him. “He wasn’t so bad. I believe, the white one was the best out of all of them.”

Jones scrunched his face, and shook his head as if Timothy was crazy. “Red was always the best, white was only second best.”

I on the other hand stared at the two in disbelief. How are they not panicking anymore? A gun was pointed at them, shouldn’t they be worried instead? I would.

“Yep, you’re still the same.” A wide grin erupted on Crystal’s face. She lowered the rifled, and straightened her back. Then her head whipped towards Timothy, her feet strutted forward as she stopped in front of his face, still with the ridiculous grin on her.

“No.” Crystal lips twitched, her eyes glared into him to the point where I thought there would be a hole in his head. “You got some seriously explaining to do that’s what.”

“Like?” Timothy crossed his arm in front of him. The others finally relaxed as well. “I, for sure, know I did nothing wrong.”

“Oh, really?” The pressure around her intensified by three folds.

“Really…?” For some reason, Timothy wasn’t so sure himself. He gulped and fidgeted under her intense gaze.

“Please, tell me why you added extra symbols into the talisman that I have personally created?”

Wait, she’s the one who created the first set of talisman?! I couldn’t help but be shocked at what I had just learned.

“That’s simple.” Timothy eyes brightened, understanding now why Crystal was up in his face. “Your method was to simple and straightforward. It’s a perfect textbook copy. Not only that, the placement of the talisman were to conspicuous. I had to actually hide it, where people didn’t normally look. Why would you even put it next to the laboratory lights? Are you seriously trying to tell the world, hey it’s here?”

“No, I thought it would be a great deterrent if the demon’s saw it.”

Timothy sighed, “I think you got this backwards, what you need to be weary of its other Normals.”

“Nobody going to know. Plus, normals don’t believe in this kind of things.”

“You don’t know that. For all we know, we could have a spy.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“You’re too trusting of humans, Crystal. You should know the history of humanity, we have traitors left and right.”

Crystal was silent thinking over what he had said.

“Plus, what I have done was hide it where it’s less visible, and reinforced the shield with my added twist.”

“You didn’t reinforce the shield, you weakened it. You should know better than I the complex the written talisman is, the more power it drains to keep it holding up.”

“True, though I thought I had gotten around that.”

“Apparently you didn’t.”

Timothy shrugged.

“I made the protection stronger, it held this place up the last attempted break in and repelled them successfully.”

Crystal grinded her teeth and she deeply sighed, shaking her head.

“Though,” Timothy tilted to the side and look over her shoulder, “Alexus, why are you wearing that strange suit? You look like you’re in a spandex.”

“Well, about that…” I wasn’t sure where to start off. Should I tell them that we were testing this suit and she shot me, or should I skip all that and just get right to the point? There were just too many thoughts in my head, making this decision a little difficult.

“That’s the Dragon Scale, we were testing it, but that’s beside the point.”

“Dragon Scale?”

“Yes, it’s one of the best body armor that I made. The material is flexible, durable, waterproof, cold and hot resistance to a certain degree, sweat proof and body odor proof. It can even stop a force of a four gauge shotgun shell without dying, though we haven’t complete a live dummy test yet.” Crystal proudly stated. She reached over, and grab my wrist, and brought up my hand to show off the watch. “This watch also reads and keeps up-to-date of all your vital organs and health.”

Marcus finally spoke, he was listening in on the conversation the whole time. “So, let me get this straight. You made that?” He pointed towards me.

“Yeah, took longer than I expected too, but it’s four years of my work of blood, sweat, and tears. My goal is to have a good working prototype for production in another year,” said Crystal.

“Are you sure that thin piece of cloth can stop a force of a four gauge shotgun?” Marcus asked, not quite believing in what she had said.

“Absolutely.” Crystal replied, not backing down from what she said. “Tested it out, but not with an Ouroboros in it.”

“Why do you need live testing anyways?”

“Simple, it has a special ability that helps control your special ability. That was the whole purpose of making Dragon Scale in the first place.”

“That’s great and all, but does it work?”

“Yes,” I croaked, stepping in on the conversation. “When the demon that attacked me, the suit repelled it perfectly. It felt like someone swung a metal bat ten times the strength of it in my stomach.”

“Hold up, you guys met a Demon already?” Jones held up his hand, and stared at us with complete shock. “So, the alarm wasn’t just field testing?” He anxiously look towards me, waiting for me to answer.

“Yes, there already here.” Crystal replied. She pulled out the handgun, and threw it over towards Marcus to catch.

The handgun flew upwards into an arch, while he caught it flawlessly without even dropping it. Moments after, three magazines were tossed towards Marcus, he grabbed them and loaded one. A loud click could be heard as the slide moved backwards as the bullet was loaded.

“Thanks.” Marcus replied. He wasn’t to thrilled at what he had heard from Crystal.

Now that I think about it, wasn’t Jones supposed to be high tailing out of here with Simon and his cronies? It would make sense, they would be using this attack as a cover up to escape.

“Hey, Jones.” I called out towards him.

“Yea?”

“You stated today was the day to leave, what happened to you leaving?” I asked.

Jones uncomfortably shifted on his feet, his hand raised up to run his finger in his thick dredges. “Well, I honestly thought it was now. We were supposed to be ready for the sign to break out of here.”

Crystal hissed. “You guys were leaving? Are you nuts? Don’t you understand how dangerous it’s out there?” She stormed.

Jones froze, his head bobbed back and forth like a willow, he then turned around with a dead expression. “I’m going to get out of here and find her.”

“Are you serious?” Timothy asked. “Hello? You’re dead. Do you think she will be jumping for joy when she see’s you in front of her doorsteps? I would be terrified as if I seen a ghost. We’re considered supernatural beings that are not human. She’ll probably think you’re a demon when you arrive in front of her doorsteps.”

“Hey, I’m just being helpful.” Timothy threw up his hand, backing away from Jones fury.

“That’s enough.” Marcus stood in between Timothy and Jones. “Jones, I need you to calm down.”

Jones turned around in completely frustration. He kicked the nearest chair, slammed the monitors onto the ground, and punched into the side of the wall. A loud bang could be heard as a hole appeared with his fist inside the wall..

“This is complete bullshit.”

Crystal was about to stop him as well, but Marcus shook his head.

“Let him vent it out. He’ll need it.”

“But right now, he’s attracting way too much attention. There are possibly Demons swarming in the corridors right as we speak. We need to make our way down towards the basement, fix the talisman, and get the Animus Progressium underway.”

“You know what the Animus Progressium is?” Timothy asked, completely interested in what Crystal got to say. He was itching for more information. “What it is? How come, it’s so well locked away?”

Crystal stopped talking, she turned towards him not to pleased at Timothy. “It’s a project to save humanity from destruction. At the rate the number of demons are multiplying, humanity is in a brink of a total genocide.”

“Really? I never heard of this.”

“You wouldn’t understand. Right now, our priority has shifted and we need to save as many Ouroboros as we can.”

“And how do you expect us to fight with one gun, one rifle, and a sword? The other two of us don’t even have a weapon. You want us to beat them with our fists?” Timothy sarcastically stated.

“If you have to, yes.” Crystal curtly replied, her hand tightened around the handle of her rifle. “Either way, there is a hidden weapon storage a floor down. We’ll get there and restock our supplies. I’m running out of ammo.”

“How many bullets do you have left?” asked Marcus.

“My guess is a good half magazine left.” Crystal checked herself, rummaging in her pocket for any other magazine left. She patted her chest, side, and even her back pocket. There wasn’t a single magazine, after what she went through.

“That could be a problem. We’ll do what we can with what we have until we make it to the weapon storage. Let’s get moving, we don’t have time to stick around any longer.” He started to head towards the door.

“I’m right behind you.” Timothy followed, he look back once more at Jones, but didn’t say anything else. Jones was still to frustrated to say anything as he bang his head against the wall a couple of times like a madman.

“Let’s go.” Crystal called out towards me. She motioned her head to follow.

I too started to follow, then stopped and walked over towards Jones. “Hey.”

Jones didn’t turn, and kept on banging his head.

“Jones, it’s time to go.”

Jones still didn’t answer.

“Look, I don’t have a girlfriend or have someone that I love.” My hand raised up towards my head, pushing back my hair and down onto my neck. “So I don’t understand what you are going through, but you need to come back to yourself. You’re stronger than this. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be for you with her.”

Jones sighed, he pushed himself off the wall. “Maybe….maybe..” His face solemn, I could tell there was a spark in his eyes that brought him back to sanity. He straightened himself out as if nothing was wrong, and pushed past me.

I knew I wasn’t the type to give great pep talks, but I thought this was all I could say.

“You coming?” Crystal called out towards me, snapping me back into attention.

“Yea, sorry.” I replied, and hurried towards the group.

Marcus and Crystal were both leaning against the wall, peeking out the side, to see if there were any demons about. Marcus turned towards Crystal, nodded, and Crystal went out first with her gun drawn.

Timothy, Jones, and I quickly fell in line, following behind Marcus. Marcus came out last, covering our back. He diligently scanned out behind us in the dim lit hallways, making sure that nothing was present to creep up from behind.

We continued down the hallway, quickly but efficiently moving around. The dimly lit hallway made it difficult to see beyond the long hallways and the turns. We didn’t even have any flashlight to help us look into the dark, but we still moved forward back towards the elevator.

Eventually we made it back, Crystal walked over pressed the button. The elevator dinged, and started to make noise. I leaned in towards the elevator, wondering why it would take longer to get to our floor. Then it hit me, the sound of the elevator was coming from the top floor, making me freeze up.

“Crystal.” I whispered.

“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked. She look over her shoulder towards me.

“We need to stand away from the elevator now.” I hurriedly replied. The time was ticking, the elevator was cranking as it came downwards every second. Any moment now, they were a possibility of the enemy riding in on the elevator itself.

“Why?” Crystal gave me a confused look not sure where I was going with this.

“The elevator went up to a high level, and we don’t know if that boy got on or not. Right now, it’s not the time to be standing in front of it, and possibly get killed.” I hissed.

“Move back!” Crystal started to shuffle backwards, but before we could all even attempt to move out of the way, the door to the elevator dinged initiating its arrival.

With a slow creaky movement of the door opening, dark ghastly swirls of smoke erupted outwards, bringing in a foul air of sulfur. We all took a step back, ready to fight or flee, and watched carefully for any possible attack.

“Haaaaahhhh~” A deep resounding breath of a sigh could be heard coming outwards.

The temperature in the air slowly started to become colder, and I drew out my swords in front of me.

“I’m so tired.” A young girl’s voice spoke out from the dark, catching all of us off guard. Something dreadful was inside the elevator, and I didn’t like it at all.